Rocking cradles and cribs have been utilized for centuries to calm and soothe babies and to assist them in falling asleep. Rocking cradles and cribs evidently originally incorporated arcuate floor-engaging support members located at bottom opposite ends of a cradle or crib to achieve the desired rocking motion.
Among the prior art cradle and crib structures, Zeeb U.S. Pat. No. 4,881,285 discloses a cradle that is suspended for rocking by linkages from an associated base and that is rocked by a drive motor through a crank. In prior art powered rocking cribs and cradles, typically, the drive motor, when energized, produces a constant rocking movement of a movable or rocking portion.
Pinto U.S. Pat. No. 2,765,478 discloses a motorized rocking crib that incorporates a timing device therein which enables the motorized crib to rock for a pre-selected time interval.
In a powered rocking crib or cradle, it would be desirable to allow an individual to immobilize the movable portion of the crib or cradle against further rocking movement. Immobilization would allow the individual to tend to the baby lying therein without displacing or moving the movable portion. For example, movement of the movable portion of the crib or cradle is undesirable when attempting to change a baby's diaper while the baby is lying therein.
A disadvantage of prior crib or cradle structures is that they incorporate powered motion inducing devices that are not related to locking devices. For example, a need existed to manually lock the movable portion which required additional time and effort when such time and effort would be better spent in caring for the baby.
Thus, there is a need for an improved apparatus and method that induces a rocking motion in a movable portion of a rocking cradle assembly and thereafter automatically locks the movable portion against further movement upon the expiration of the time interval of operation of the incorporated motion inducing mechanism.